Herning, Denmark – On January 21st, the international hockey community was rocked by the news of Jim Johannson’s sudden death.

Officially, he was USA Hockey’s assistant executive director in charge the various responsibilities associated with international competitions and was in charge of selecting teams for most of those events including the past ten world championships at the U18, U20 and men’s levels and was even the general manager for Team USA at the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Unofficially, he was the heart and soul of USA Hockey.

As Team USA faces Czech Republic in the quarterfinals of the 2018 IIHF World Championship on Thursday in Denmark, the players, coaches and staff of USA Hockey are doing their best to honor the man known as JJ by all who knew him with USA’s first gold medal at this tournament since 1933.

“Every one of us has some sort of a relationship with JJ and the impact he’s had on each of our careers and our lives...